Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday was briefed by Economy and
Finance Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou and Education Minister Aris
Spiliotopoulos, during a meeting at the Maximos Mansion government
house.

Afterwards, Spiliotopoulos told reporters that 126,000 PCs will be
allocated to 7th grade pupils around the country, with coupons being
distributed that allow them to acquire the PC and 16 included software
programmes.

Papathanassiou said the programme is budgeted at 68 million euros and
will be funded by 4th CSF monies.

Additionally, junior high school textbooks will be distributed in
electronic formats.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis held talks at the Maximos Mansion on
Monday with the directorate of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.

Speaking after the meeting, Chamber president Costas Mihalos said that
"the global economic crisis has dealt a blow at the Greek economy as
well and, of course, it has underlined its longstanding structural
problems."

He added that enterprising and radical reforms are necessary which, as
he said, the government has already announced.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis held talks at the Maximos Mansion on
Monday with representatives of the PASEGES farmers union, who briefed
him on problems currently facing the farming sector. The meeting was
held in the framework of preparations for the upcoming Thessaloniki
International Fair (TIF).

Speaking after the meeting, the Union's President Tzanetos Karamihas
said that they presented the prime minister with problems concerning
the dramatic decrease in farming incomes by 14 percent, the drop in
agricultural production, the widening of the feeding deficit and the
increase in unemployment.

He added that they gave the prime minister complete proposals on the
handling of problems. Asked what the prime minister replied, the
PASEGES president said that he told them "we shall talk in
Thessaloniki."

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday had a meeting with a
delegation from the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece (FING)
at his offices in Athens, in view of the upcoming Thessaloniki
International Fair (TIF).

FING President Nikos Pentzos said that he had outlined the problems
faced by manufacturers, including lower turnover, lower profitability,
stalled investment, reduced production and lower consumption.

He asked that manufacturing be restored to a central place in
government policy, with targeted measures that would allow businesses
to survive.

Also present during the meeting was Finance Minister Yiannis
Papathanassiou, who said there had been an honest and useful exchange
of opinions and stressed the government's support of northern Greece's
manufacturing sector.

Main opposition PASOK party leader George Papandreou will chair a
session of his party's political council at noon on Tuesday, a party
spokesman announced on Monday.

Speaking at a regular press briefing on Monday, spokesman George
Papaconstantinou, when asked if PASOK was creating momentum towards an
election victory, said that "a year ago there were telling us that you
are still behind, then they were telling us how can it be that you are
in the same position, we passed ahead in the opinion polls, we won in
the Euroelections and they are telling us only with four units
difference, in any case opinion poll figures are leaving us coldly
indifferent, our aim is to change the country."

Asked about the possibility of elections being called in relation to
PASOK's possible absolute majority in an election win, Papaconstantinou
said that "it is interesting how the possibility of elections is linked
to the extent of New Democracy's defeat", while added that "we are
speaking of a change in the country's course and on how ND will deprive
PASOK of a majority."

On the question of the election of the president of the republic, the
spokesman said "our position is absolutely the same, we want Karolos
Papoulias as president, we want the president to be elected by a
Parliament, that has received a fresh popular mandate, this will be our
reply to Mr. Karamanlis, if he invites us."

Referring to a two-year extension he said the Greek government is
negotiating with the European Commission to decrease the budget deficit
below the 3-percent mark, Papaconstantinou said that "we had pointed
out that the target of decreasing the deficit in 2010 was unattainable,
unless more tax measures were taken (and in addition) we had said that
negotiating was self-evident."

Visiting the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Monday, Transport
Minister Evripidis Stylianidis pledged the "dynamic" introduction of
railways to address gaps in the city's transportation network, due to a
lack of adequate bus routes. The minister underlined that the programme
to modernise and reform Greece's railway system would be among the most
important of the government's reforms in the coming period.

Among the plans outlined by Stylianidis were extending the Thessaloniki
suburban line to Edessa and Kilkis within the next six months and a new
line linking Macedonia airport with Epanomi and Moudania, as well as a
railway line running parallel to the Egnatia motorway.

The minister also announced an increase in the Thessaloniki bus
services that can be used by the disabled, the acquisition of
mini-buses for Thessaloniki's Ano Poli district and an increase in
"smart" bus stations to 200.

Replacement of the city's fleet of buses with 60 new low-pollution
vehicles will begin in 2010, while a tender will be announced in the
first six months of 2010 for the replacement of another 102
old-technology buses.

During the visit, the minister inaugurated a new intercity bus station
(KTEL) in Halkidiki and the new tourist bus that will carry out a tour
of historic sites and landmarks in the city, making 17 stops at
museums, churches and other monuments. The ticket for the tour bus will
cost two euros and be valid for travel on all public transport in the
city for 24 hours.

Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Monday announced the creation
of three new committees for A/ H1N1 novel influenza, as well as new
vaccination centres and flu surgeries to boost operational planning for
coping with the disease. The announcements were made after a meeting of
the National Influenza Pandemic Committee chaired by the minister.

Avramopoulos said the ministry would set up a Supreme Ethics and
Conduct Committee for the flu, as well as two special committee for
epidemiological and clinical monitoring of its progress.

The minister also announced that the Social Insurance Foundation (IKA)
would contribute 158 vaccination centres and 100 surgeries for flu
cases.

Avramopoulos noted that confusion continued to prevail on a worldwide
basis, even among the scientific community, about the best response to
the virus' progress but said that the period of maximum intensity was
not expected to last as long in Greece, where winters came later and
ended sooner.

He added that the first doses of the vaccine against the virus would
arrive in the middle of September, while its approval by the European
Drugs Agency was expected in mid October, repeating that schools will
open as usual on September 11.

Confirmed cases in Greece have now reached 1,839, of which 1 percent
have been treated in hospital and 95 percent have fully recovered.

Ruling New Democracy (ND) deputy Yiannis Manolis on Monday officially
announced his resignation from Parliament as an MP from Argolida
prefecture, in the northwest Peloponnese.

Manolis, a former high-profile labour unionist long affiliated with the
New Democracy party, had repeatedly stated over the past few months
that he would resign from Parliament at the conclusion of the
legislature's third summer session.

In a letter of resignation to the Parliament president, the outspoken
Manolis noted that his action aims to aid the prime minister "in not
succumbing to all those recommending an electoral suicide."

Manolis did not mince his words in criticising those, who he charged,
promote early election scenarios, saying this belies opportunism to
assume ND's leadership or "others, who desire for themselves a
significant institutional bi-partisan role ... even if this
necessitates a heavy defeat and a dramatic shrinking (of the party's
support)."

Moreover, he called on Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to proceed with
a wholesale overhaul of the party.

His seat in Parliament will be assumed by the runner-up on ND's ticket
for the specific district, namely, Dimitris Kranias.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expressed its reaction to the
anti-communist, as it termed it, "campaign by the European Union to
establish August 23 as a day equating fascism and communism", with a
rally and protest march to the European Union's offices from the Athens
district of Kesariani on Monday.

KKE Secretary General Aleka Papariga, addressing the rally, termed the
EU's memorandum "a modern-day anti-communist interstate memorandum, a
forerunner and not merely a prelude to new violent and reactionary
measures against the rights of the working people of all of Europe and
Greece, against the peoples who, sooner or later, will assume historic
initiatives in their countries at European level."

Papariga further said that for 91 years KKE has been experiencing all
the forms of anti-communism, sometimes covered, but most of the time
openly, crudely and violently, sometimes in the form of a defamatory
ideological campaign and sometimes combined with measures of force,
suppression and persecution.

Rural Development and Foods Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis on Monday
announced a series of measures designed to support livestock breeders,
including rescheduling of loans given by the Agricultural Bank of
Greece. A short while earlier, livestock breeders throughout Greece had
congregated at Tempi and used farm vehicles to block the main national
highway connecting northern and southern Greece.

The measures announced by the minister include cash support and
subsidies amounting to some 200 million euros to be paid out from the
start of 2010, 152.4 million euros to subsidise insurance for crops
used as livestock feed and new kinds of damages caused by climate
change that were not previously covered by the farming insurance
organisation.

During the protest blockade at Tempi, livestock breeders had demanded
measures to supplement lost income, rescheduling of their debts, tax
breaks and better prices for their products. They said they would
continue blocking the road until nightfall, at which time they would
decide what to do next.

The head of the national livestock breeders union Dimitris Kambouris
explained that this was a "warning mobilisation" and that traffic would
be allowed through at intervals, while emergency incidents would be
allowed to pass using the hard shoulder.

"Our aim is not to make people suffer but to demand that our justified
demands be met," he said.

Greek livestock breeders decided to withdraw their vehicles from the
national highway at Tempi and go home on Monday afternoon, after
blocking the road in protest earlier that day to demand greater
financial support from the government.

Following the announcement on Monday of support measures for livestock
farmers by Rural Development and Food Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis, they
decided that their "warning mobilisation" had succeeded in sending the
government a message and agreed to depart, though warning that they
were not backing down from their demands.

"We expect the prime minister, from the Thessaloniki International
Fair, to include in the measures that he will announce certain binding
announcement for immediately meeting our economic demands," said the
head of the Greek livestock farmers union Dimitris Kambouris, adding
that farmers would take to the roads again after September 20 if their
demands were not met.

Greek exporters on Monday urged the government to adopt a new growth
model for the economy, aimed at boosting exports and strengthening
Greek products' presence in already established markets.

In a memorandum sent to Economy and Finance Minister Yiannis
Papathanasiou, the Panhellenic Federation of Exporters said a sharp
fall in exports in the first half of the year confirmed the need to
adopt a new economic growth model, which should include new methods to
promoting exports, new innovative, brand names, strengthening Greek
products in traditional markets and expanding into new markets
(Mediterranean, Middle East).

Intralot Group on Monday reported lower six months results, with
consolidated turnover totaling 488 million euros in the first half of
the year, down from 547.5 million euros in 2008 and pre-tax, interest
and amortization earnings (EBITDA) falling to 91.1 million euros from
126.7 million euros over the same period, respectively. Pre-tax
earnings were 74.6 million euros and after tax and minorities earnings
totaled 42 million euros, down from 112.4 million and 60.3 million
euros, in the corresponding period last year respectively.

Parent turnover was 51.4 million euros and pre-tax, interest and
amortization earnings (EBITDA) totaled 9.5 million euros in the first
six months of 2009, while after tax profits were 10.6 million euros.

Commenting on the results, Intralot's chief executive, Constantinos
Antonopoulos expressed his satisfaction with first half results and
reiterated Intralot's intention to seek new opportunities abroad.

Intracom Holdings on Monday reported a 12.9 pct increase in first half
sales to 260.8 million euros, from 231 million euros in the
corresponding period last year.

Pre-tax, interest and amortization earnings (EBITDA0 jumped to 50
million euros, from 6.3 million euros in 2008, while pre-tax profits
and net profits totaled 13 million euros and 10.5 million euros, after
losses of 25 million euros and 27.4 million euros, respectively.

Hellenic Petroleum on Monday announced a board decision to pay a
0.15-euro per share pre-dividend to its shareholders. In a statement,
the company said the net dividend payment, after a 10-percent
withholding tax, will total 0.135-euro per share.

Record date was set Oct. 21, 2009. Hellenic Petroleum said its shares
will be traded ex-dividend on the Athens Stock Exchange from Monday,
Oct. 19, 2009.

Lavipharm on Monday reported improved first half results, with
consolidated turnover rising to 122.8 million euros, from 119.7 million
in the same period last year, reflecting a 14 pct cut in operating
spending. The company said pre-tax, interest and amortization earnings
(EBITDA) jumped to 4.5 million euros from 1.1 million euros in 2008,
while financial results turned positive to 8.98 million euros
reflecting the write off of a debt by its subsidiary in the US.

Consolidated pre-tax and minorities earnings totaled 11.6 million euros
in the first six months of 2009, after a loss of 7.6 million euros last
year, while after tax and minorities earnings totaled 6.2 million euros
from a loss of 5.5 million in 2008.

Lavipharm said that following negative developments in the US, its
three-year business plan was no longer valid.

Parent turnover rose 4.7 pct to 29.1 million euros, while operating
earnings fell by 29.9 pct, and after tax results showed a loss of
137,000 euros, after earnings of 837,000 in 2008.

Babis Vovos International Constructions on Monday reported after tax
losses of 6.2 million euros in the first half of the year, after
earnings of 34.8 million euros in 2008 and said EBITDA totaled 6.8
million euros, down from 84.9 million euros in 2008.

Net financial expenses fell by 41.7 pct, while income fell 1.9 pct to
27.3 million euros compared with the same period last year.

The Group said its NAV/share was 14.47 euros in the first six months of
the year, down 1.4 pct from last year, while investment real estate
properties were value at 1.21 billion euros at June 30, 2009, unchanged
from December 31, 2008.

Greece's retail sales turnover index dropped 13.4 pct in June, compared
with the same month in 2008, the National Statistical Service said on
Monday, while the retail sales volume index fell by 14.2 pct over the
same period.

The statistics agency, in a report, attributed the 13.4 pct decline in
the retail sales turnover index to a 27 pct drop in fuel and lubricants
sales, a 5.4 pct fall in foodstore sales and a 16.9 pct drop in other
shop sales. Bookstore sales dropped 32.2 pct and furniture-electrical
appliances fell 23.2 pct.

The 14.2 pct fall in the retail sales volume index reflected a 12.6 pct
in fuel and lubricants, a 9.4 pct in foodstore sales, a 34.2 pct drop
in bookstores and a 24.2 pct in home equipment sales.

The turnover index, including fuel and lubricants was up 1.8 pct in
June, while the retail sales volume index including fuel and lubricants
was up 2.0 pct.

Greek stocks ended sharply lower at the Athens Stock Exchange on
Monday, hit by a wave of profit taking. The composite index of the
market ended at 2,466.41 points, off 2.91 pct, with turnover an
improved 330.4 million euros, of which 121.6 million euros were block
trades.

The September contract on the FTSE 20 index was trading at -0.33 pct in
the Athens Derivatives Exchange on Monday, with turnover a low 54.905
million euros. Volume on the Big Cap index totaled 5,177 contracts
worth 33.819 million euros, with 23,046 open positions in the market.

Ôurnover in the Greek electronic secondary bond market totaled 1.112
billion euros on Monday, of which 800 million euros were buy orders and
the remaining 612 million were sell orders. The 10-year benchmark bond
(July 19, 2019) was the most heavily traded security with a turnover of
582 million euros. The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and
German bonds rose to 125 basis points with the Greek bond yielding 4.52
pct and the German Bund 3.27 pct.

The European Commission and Greek Commissioner for the environment
Stavros Dimas on Monday welcomed provisional figures for 2008
indicating that greenhouse gas emissions within the European Union had
dropped for the fourth consecutive year.

ÔÝëïòöüñìáòÁñ÷Þöüñìáò"These provisional figures are a further
confirmation that the EU is well on track to reach its Kyoto target,
even if one should recognise that part of the reduction in emissions is
due to the economic slowdown. This trend needs to be further
consolidated in the coming years. The EU has already shown that it can
successfully decouple its emissions from economic growth. The swift
implementation of the EU climate and energy package should give a new
impetus to this trend. This is a timely message to the rest of the
world in the run up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December,"
Dimas commented.

According to provisional estimates released by the European Environment
Agency, emissions in the 15 oldest member-states of the EU dropped by
1.3 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, reaching levels 6.2 percent lower
than the reference year (in most cases 1990). The Commission considers
that this brings the 15 member-states one step closer to achieving the
Kyoto Protocol target of reducing emissions by 8 percent below levels
in the reference year during 2008-2012. Levels in the 27 EU
member-states dropped by an estimated 1.5 percent in 2008 and are 13.6
percent lower than levels in the reference year.

The fire brigade's report on the massive fires in east Attica earlier
in August was sent to the public prosecutor investigating possible
criminal liability for the fires on Monday. The report's findings
indicate that at least one person is responsible for setting the fires,
while it also refers to possible liability on the part of the officials
responsible for protecting against fires.

The public prosecutor will now pick up the investigation and take
additional statements and new testimony in order to decide whether the
fires were deliberate or the result of negligence.

Four bank robbers caught just minutes after robbing a branch of Attica
Bank in Nea Ionia were taken to Attica Security headquarters for
questioning on Monday.

The armed robbery occurred at 10.20 on Monday morning, with the four
men arriving at the bank driving a white Nissan. Two of them then
entered the bank and forced the cashiers to hand over the money in
their tills at gunpoint, before climbing back into the car with their
accomplices and driving off.

Just minutes afterward, however, the car was spotted entering the
Attiki Odos highway from Irakliou Avenue by a police patrol car that
was in the area as part of an effort to prevent robberies. The officers
followed the vehicle and called for assistance, so that the bank
robbers were finally cut off on the Athens-Lamia highway.

They were found to be carrying a Kalashnikov automatic weapon, a
Russian-made army rifle, 16,400 euros taken during the robbery, hoods,
gloves and other objects. All four were Greek.

Greek authorities reported two major drug hauls on Monday, one by
customs officers on the island of Kos and the second involving the find
of a large quantity of cannabis in the Athens suburb of Maroussi.

Customs officers on Kos arrested a 20-year-old Lithuanian national
travelling from Turkey with six kilos of heroin in his luggage on
Saturday night. The drugs were concealed in a suitcase with a false
bottom. This was the third arrest involving a foreign national entering
the Dodecanese islands from Turkey carrying drugs.

In the second case, police found 240 kilos of unprocessed cannabis in a
jeep abandoned on the Attiki Odos highway in the Athens suburb of
Maroussi on Sunday. The jeep was searched by the drugs squad, who
considered its presence suspicious, and an investigation is now
underway.

Drugs squad officers also reported the arrest on Sunday night in the
Athens districts of Peristeri and Agios Nikolaos of three Albanians
aged 19, 20 and 25 years on suspicion of drug trading.

The three young men were searched and found to be carrying a
Kalashnikov rifle, two guns, ammunition of various calibres and 280
euros and were led before a public prosecutor on Monday.

A 27-year-old woman who sustained extensive burns when her husband
allegedly set her on fire more than a week ago off a roadway in the NW
Athens district of Ano Liossia died over the weekend, staff at Athens'
KAT hospital announced.

The victim's 41-year-old husband was apprehended moments after the Aug.
23 attack while driving away in his vehicle on a nearby highway.

Both the victim and the alleged perpetrator were identified as Albanian
nationals.

The attack on the woman caused a roadside brush fire and an immediate
fire brigade mobilisation in the area -- in the foothills below Mt.
Parnitha -- during the height of desperate efforts to extinguish a
multi-front wildfire raging at the time to the north and northeast of
Athens proper.

Seventy illegal immigrants, most from Myanmar (Burma), were detected in
truck that had just entered Greece on Monday and was traveling in the
extreme northeast district of Didymoticho, Evros prefecture.

The driver, a Moldavian national, was arrested at the scene. The
illegals were crammed inside the truck's trailer and were reportedly
headed for the country's interior.

The incident is noteworthy due to the detection of illegal immigrants
from Myanmar -- between India and Thailand -- indicating that an
overland illegal migration flow towards Europe is emerging farther east
than previously recorded.

Cloudy and showery weather and northerly winds are forecast in most
parts of the country on Tuesday, with wind velocity reaching 2-7
beaufort. Temperatures will range between 15C and 35C. Cloudy with
possible showers in Athens, with northerly 4-6 beaufort winds and
temperatures ranging from 22C to 31C. Same in Thessaloniki, with
temperatures ranging from 21C to 28C.